I mentioned at The IPC (in this post HERE) that I went to see four movies the other day. Yes, I was at the cinema for, like, ten hours. No, I don’t normally do that. Yes, I do think it was a little insane. 😉

This is what I saw: Godzilla, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Edge Of Tomorrow, and A Million Ways To Die In The West. Well, Edge Of Tomorrow is easily the best of these. And this is coming from someone who is Anti-Cruise and his Tom Cruise-y acting. He’s too Tom Cruise-y! (Which was also my main in-depth argument in my review for Oblivion).

Well, I may have wished that this movie had starred someone else but it’s still a pretty damn good piece of sci-fi anyway. Yes, it really is Groundhog Day with aliens but, hey – what crazy person doesn’t like Groundhog Day? And Alien & Aliens are two of the absolute best movies EVER so, really, it’s a recipe for success.

And while the story sounds convoluted (I’ve not gone into a full plot synopsis as I know some people don’t like to know too much), it’s actually done really well in the film and doesn’t get confusing. In fact, I found X-Men: Days Of Future Past far more convoluted (and slightly disappointing). I’m not one of those types to dig for plot holes but it feels like this one would actually stand up to close scrutiny. It felt a bit like Looper if Looper had been a little more straight forward (I suppose the Emily Blunt connection made me keep thinking of that one throughout this movie). But Edge Of Tomorrow is better – I thought it had a very solid plot that’s less complex than you’d think, which is actually nice for a change in a world (I just heard that movie trailer guy’s voice in my head – “in a world…”) where too many sci-fi movies try to be something like Inception and most fail miserably, just giving us a mess of a plot.

As always, the things I care most about in a movie are story & characters. Luckily, the characters are just as strong as the plot (especially Emily Blunt, who is fabulous in this and SUCH a great character). I was going to go on & on about her in this review but, instead, I highly recommend you read this piece by Mike over at Screenkicker: Full Metal Bitches. It’s an excellent write-up about the lack of decent female characters in action films these days & how right Edge Of Tomorrow gets Blunt’s character. She’s tough yet feminine, she’s intelligent, she’s… Fully clothed! She kicks ass but feels more “real” than Ripley or Sarah Connor (not that I’m complaining about those two because those two RULE!). Anyway – just read what Mike wrote. Oh, and you can also read his Edge Of Tomorrow review HERE. 🙂

As for Tom Cruise-y Tom Cruise… Well, he’s good in this. He does so many similar roles and especially loves his sci-fi but, for once, this felt like a slightly different character for him, especially at the beginning. I can’t really fault his performance and I suppose he can’t help the fact that he’s Tom Cruise. As for the other characters, they seemed to be trying to make the soldiers similar to those in Aliens (I mean, hell – Bill Paxton was even used!). At one point Paxton’s character was like “Game over, man! Game over! I’d like to butter your muffin!” (Okay – that didn’t happen. But it should have). This mostly works but not QUITE. I appreciate the effort, though, as I think Aliens has one of best groups of characters so it’s natural to want a similar thing here. I’d actually have liked to see a little more of the soldiers in Edge Of Tomorrow – believe it or not, they provide some comic relief. But in a good way. One of the most surprising things about this movie was that there were bits of humor scattered throughout and it worked just fine. Hell, even Tom Cruise had a couple funny bits!

Summary:

Yeah – I could ramble on more but I think it’s time I wrap this up as I’ve said all there really is to say. This is a solid sci-fi film with a strong plot that doesn’t get all convoluted. The characters are great, especially Emily Blunt in a role that female (and male) sci-fi fans will be happy to see (yes, there are plenty of female sci-fi fans – it’s time Hollywood realizes this). Oh! And I suppose I’ve not even mentioned that the aliens look really good and are pretty cool and the action scenes are great. Edge Of Tomorrow is a good piece of sci-fi action and I definitely recommend it to fans of this genre.

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60 thoughts on “Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) Review”

I love it. I must say that I laughed when I saw the trailer for this, really didn’t look like anything I wanted to see, but the feedback seems to be relatively positive on this. I think I might watch this at some stage.

Yeah – I don’t mind him as much in certain movies. Even Top Gun – it’s just such a well known film & I can’t see anyone else in that role now anyway. It’s more his stuff from current years where I wish someone else was the star. God, though – will he EVER age?? Looks about 37! Vanilla Sky was interesting – I’ve had the original of that on DVD for years & keep meaning to watch it.

Emily Blunt IS super sexy in this. I totally agree. She’s “real” and not just playing the role of “random slut” like Megan Fox in Transformers or loads of other shit like that. (Who, by the way, is so FAR from sexy. Blunt beats that by a million miles)

Nice review! 10 hours is a pretty impressive showing. I think my brain would frazzle after exiting the cinema if that was me. I also enjoyed this, although I thought Cruise was a bit Cruisier than you. For me it’s sort of a disguised Cruisiness for thirty minutes before the Cruise factor gradually increased, hitting maximum Cruisiness for the last 40 minutes or so.

Thanks! : ) Lol – my brain WAS pretty fried after the fourth movie. ; ) Hahaha! “Cruisiness”. I like that. I do agree that the Cruise factor kept increasing throughout the film and by the end he was his usual Tom Cruise-y self again. I think I was trying to be nice in case he reads this. Lol! ; )

Yeah – he loves his sci-fi! Minority Report is a great one. I admit that one is probably a better film than Edge Of Tomorrow but, thanks mainly to Emily Blunt, I’d have to say I had more fun with this one. Hope you do like it if you see it – would be cool to know your thoughts. : )

Great review Mutey!! (my new name for you, it sounds less harsh than me just shortening your username down to ‘mutant’ lol! — but it’s only yours if you approve). I completely agree on this, this was a completely surprise and while I might enjoy Cruise a tad more than you on average, I do find him to be repeating the same shlocky action hero every time for the last ten years. His career has been caught in a time loop!!! It’s damn high time he woke up and smelled the Emily Blunt factor. This was great.

Lol! Mutey is fine by me. People here call me all kinds of combinations of my user name & blog name. ; ) Glad you agree on this one! Yes – I’d not really thought about it but he’s always the main star, isn’t he? And always a hero (except for in Collateral but it’s all I can think of). Blunt really is equal with him here and is what actually makes this movie work above all else. : )

I have yet to see anyone actually say anything negative about this one. : ) And, while I love the X-Men films and am very fond of the characters (especially Professor X & Magneto), I just thought the script for Edge Of Tomorrow was much better and, um, executed more effectively I guess. But I still love those mutants. ; )

I’m kinda playfully insulted you think seeing many movies a day is crazy!! My standard is back to back movies and when I have time I watch three in a day to get them all out of the way and enjoy the rest of the week off. My record is the Twilight marathon, all five movies in one day. I was in the building for about 13 and half hours if you count the time I waited in line.

As far as Edge of Tomorrow goes, I loved it like you said. I enjoyed your review and have to say I guess I am crazy at something because those Alien(s) movies did nothing for me. 😛

Wow! All five Twilight movies in one day?? That’s dedication, I guess. ; ) I’d love to do an all night Nightmare On Elm Street marathon but few cinemas ever do things like that anymore. Thanks – I’m glad you enjoyed Edge Of Tomorrow so much too. Hmm… I’m trying to think of a nice way to put this… No. I just can’t. Not liking the Alien films is definitely crazy. Lol! ; )

Thanks! : ) I hope you like it. I also expected it to be very “average” as it’s yet another Tom Cruise film and they’re pretty much always just plain average these days. Blunt really makes the film for me but the whole thing was a great surprise. : )

Great review! Was quite pleasantly surprised by this one, really enjoyed it. The action scenes were great, I loved the humor (wasn’t expecting it, but thought it was worked in well). Emily Blunt was great, and the time loop aspect was handled well without it being too confusing or repetitive. This is actually one of my favorites of the year so far.

Thanks! : ) Yeah – this one really took everyone by surprise. Glad to hear you liked it too. I know – the story really could have been way too confusing but it wasn’t. They did such a good job with this one. It’s pretty high on my list of 2014 movies as well. : )